Domingo, Gibson and Cook to join Tigers’ training sessions after Sunday
ছবি- সংগৃহীত
|| CF Correspondent ||
Bangladesh Cricket Board, the apex body of the country’s cricket, arranged individual training sessions for the interested cricketers across the country on July 19 amid the concern of the contagious coronavirus pandemic.
Mushfiqur Rahim-Mohammad Mithun opened the proceedings that followed the other players with the passage of time. Since then, the duo has been practicing regularly at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) and its surroundings- National Cricket Academy (NCA), Gymnasium and Mirpur Indoors.
The BCB abruptly halted the ongoing players’ Individual Training Sessions (ITS) in Mirpur on September 4 after corona-like symptoms among some supporting staff of the players were detected.
In the meantime, a player and a trainer have tested positive for COVID-19. In such a situation, the board initially halted the training session for three days though they later extended the halt period for the next two days.
The individual training sessions alongside training in small groups have been started with additional precaution from September 9 after being suspended for a five-day halt.
Even though the cricketers have been practicing for so long, there was no foreign coach with them in the field. BCB runs the sessions by its appointed-trainers.
The BCB has formulated a short-term team-wise training plan for the players ahead of the departure for the Sri Lanka tour, the training session which will be kicked off September 21.
Bangladesh head coach Russell Domingo and fielding coach Ryan Cook returned to Bangladesh from their respective home country on September 7. Fast bowling coach Ottis Gibson also arrived in Dhaka on September 8, a day after the head coach’s arrival. Before them, physiotherapist Julian Calefato arrived in Bangladesh and remained in quarantine.
They are likely to join the team’s ongoing training sessions by shortening their quarantine period for which the BCB meanwhile applied to the government and its Health department so that they can join the training sessions prior to the departure of the team.
They came here after being held their corona tests in their respective countries. It is learnt that Doming-Cook-Gibson did not get the formal release letter before Sunday due to the weekly holiday (Friday and Saturday).
It’s scheduled to conduct a three-phased corona test for the players of the national team along with BCB-High Performance (HP) before the tour of Sri Lanka. The first phase was slated to begin on September 18.
But the BCB did a test as a part of the additional precaution last Monday and Wednesday. The BCB collected the corona samples from cricketers’ houses. A total of 24 people including 17 players and seven officials were tested from where player Saif Hassan and trainer Neek Lee had tested positive for coronavirus. They were in isolation after being tested positive.
The rest of the phases of the corona tests will be held on September 18, 21 and 24 respectively. The last test will be done, just 72 hours prior to the departure for the Sri Lanka series.
The team-wise practice will start at the SBNCS on September 21. They will fly to Colombo on September 27 after holding some intense practice sessions.
In addition, Bangladesh will play a three-match Test series against the host Sri Lanka. The initial two Tests were scheduled to take place in Kandy, while the third and last test of the three-match Test series will be held either Colombo or the other venue which is yet to be confirmed by the Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC).
The national team will play a slew of practice matches against BCB-High Performance (HP) team before going into the main series though the SLC is yet to announce the final schedule and the venue of the matches as well.
